Mana Games

[stevedaytona]

At the playing the match screen it shows the word "malus" and a percentage under the tactic selector icon.

What does malus mean?

[Rob4590]

Its the handicap that playing in the different style or using less energy will give the player

eg The player has 80 skills everywhere - he decides to only use 75% energy, which gives him a 10% handicap - so he plays that match like a 72 skill player (72 = 80 - 10%)

[manutoo]

This is all correct, but just this additional precision : the tactic malus doesn't lower the service & return skills.

[stevedaytona]

Thanks for the info. I was thinking that was the case (having initially thought it was a bonus!)

I am still a little unsure what style is best to play. If the player has the style of "varied" is it best to play that mostly, or if a match is say, on clay, is it best to take the penalty and play "defender" as that would be the best style for that surface? Or does it also depend on the style of the opposing player?

Also, do the computer controlled players always play their best style regardless of surface or opponent?

[manutoo]

CPU players always play their best style, whatever the situation is.

Here the most interesting situation to swap style during the match :
you have a volleyer with low volley skills, and strong rally skills, and you're going to play on clay.
This extreme case shouldn't happen often in the game, but it should give you an idea.

The efficiency of your style tactic will depend a bit of your opponent, but with only very small differences.

I still have to write a complete documentation that would let you know more clearly what skills are the most useful depending of the game style (even if most are obvious, same are less, like the physical & mental skills).

[Rob4590]

Manu - in your last post it seemed to indicate that you can change styles DURING the match. Is that correct - cos I can't get to do that? I can only decide a style before the match starts - is that what you meant?

It would be really nice to be able to change styles DURING the match (maybe only at the start of each set) - eg if you lose the first set easily, then you might want to change to try and alter the pattern of the match by changing tactics. And given that the players (in real life) can now sometimes have their coach on court at the end of a set, this might be realistic. Of course - if that is already in there, then why can't I get it to work lol ?

[manutoo]

sorry, "during the match" reads "at match start" ....

I think I didn't see any coach on court since a few years back, when they did a little try about that.
But it's not unusual to see coaches doing sign to their players during a match...

I think the possibility to change of tactic during the match will have to wait TEM2 where it'll be possible to see the on court action...
Right now, the consequences of the change would be hard to clear...

[stevedaytona]

Perhaps the ability to change tactic could be a player attribute? What I am thinking here is that some players will stick with the coach's tactic no matter what where others might change things around if the match is going badly. For example, I cannot imagine Federer (bad example since he does not have a coach...lol) staying with the same tactic if he loses the 1st set 6-2 - he would change the way he is playing.

[manutoo]

yes, it could be possible, for as the simulation is working right now, it wouldn't have much sense ; due to the used calculation methods to simulate the forces ratio & interaction => the CPU can know precisely what is the best tactic, and it'd look more like cheating than "trying something different".
But it could be a lot more interesting option if it was possible to see the match. (maybe in a far future )

[Curtis]

The efficiency of your style tactic will depend a bit of your opponent, but with only very small differences.

I still have to write a complete documentation that would let you know more clearly what skills are the most useful depending of the game style (even if most are obvious, same are less, like the physical & mental skills).

I have a question about this, which doesn't seem to be covered in the current documentation paragraph about match style: I am coaching two players. One has the 'varied' style, and she always defaults to 'varied' during matches, which is what I expected. The other is a 'puncher', but about one match in three her style defaults to 'varied' with a malus of 5%. Whenever I notice it, I switch it back to 'puncher', but my question is —

Why does she ever default to another style? I would assume that the default style should always be whichever style appears on her character screen. Does the computer believe that she would be better off playing that match in a different style with a malus than she would be playing in her normal style without one? Am I hurting her chances by reverting it to her natural style?

[manutoo]

Hello Curtis,

this is a bug as well...
I'm not sure why it happens, I just checked the code, and it seems fine, maybe it happens only in some special case...

[Curtis]

this is a bug as well...

Well, at least I'm good for something.

This is off-topic, but I've found two more of what might be bugs… or might be design choices.

1) The first is with the pictures of players. The model you use for Emily reverses for right and left handed players, but the other one is always left-handed, even though the players she represents are usually right-handed.

2) The second one is intermittent. Sometimes when looking at the tournament draw, if you hit the button to move the screen to the right the bottom half of the draw disappears. This only seems to occur if your player is in the top half of the draw, and I THINK only when checking the standings after a first round singles match (32 player draw). It's possible the computer hasn't figured out who won in the bottom half of the draw yet (so no one has advanced onto the second round), but this still struck me as a little odd.

[manutoo]

1) the picture was inverted, so left & right handed were as well ; i corrected this.

2) you mean there's no name at all in the lower part, but still the draw lines, right ? If so, then it's normal, not much choice there, except preventing the scrolling, but i preferred to let it like that...

[Curtis]

2) That's fine. I have learned to adjust to the situation by not scrolling right until I am certain the bottom half of the draw has played. As I thought; a design decision.

[manutoo]

Do you mean that if you scroll right, then the arrows disappear and you can't scroll back to the left ?